Sunday 24th September 2023 - Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Isaiah 55:6-9/ Psalm 144(145)/ Philippians 1:20-24,27/ Matthew 20:1-16

In our human thinking we are often drawn to make comparisons between each other. This can result in envy of what others might have. Envy is a destructive and sinful force, damaging the relationships between each other but more importantly our relationship with God. If we see God as an unfair employer, then we are thinking in human terms and not as God thinks.

In the first reading the prophet is warning us that God’s ways are very different from ours. God’s thoughts are not like our thoughts and his ways are not ours, God’s thoughts and ways are described as being above human thoughts and ways, utterly different from ours. The love we display is rarely anything like the love that God has for us. God’s love is a pure unconditional love. We can attach conditions to the love we have for others. We seem to need a reciprocation for the love we give out. It might not be an obvious attitude of ‘what can I get out of this relationship’ but there may well be subtle undertones of such thinking. The love God has is limitless and has no element of self-centeredness. Our love can be shot through with limitations emanating from our fallen human nature.

The gospel parable of the workers in the vineyard appears to our human thinking as grossly unfair to those who had worked hard all day in the heat compared with those who had been employed at the end of the day. Our thinking would expect the late comers to be paid less than those who had put in a hard day’s work. To rub salt into the wound those who had worked all day were made to wait while the late comers were paid first. As with most of the parables there are many levels of meaning with differing messages for us in our various circumstances. They are there for us to prayerfully contemplate what Jesus is telling us at a particular moment in our lives.

To help interpret the message we can look for the more immediate and obvious meanings. The gospel parable highlights in exaggeration how God’s thinking differs from that of humanity. All the workers, no matter how long they had laboured, received the same payment. This payment is salvation from sin and death. We have not worked for it, nor can we do so. It was won by Jesus who lived, suffered, died, and rose for us. The payment we receive for our work in the world, God’s vineyard, is the ability to follow Jesus through death to eternal life. This is the same reward that all humanity can claim. It makes us all equal no matter what we have done or not done, however long or short our work in God’s vineyard on earth has been. God’s contract with us is the same for everyone, entry into eternal life in heaven. The parable is a graphic illustration of how the last will be first and the first last. It doesn’t matter as long as we attain heaven eventually.

In the letter to the Philippians Paul explains that he wants to be gone to be united in God but is willing to remain and continue to work for the good of others. Paul is an example of what the parable of the workers in the vineyard means. Paul knows that his place in heaven is assured to such a degree that he is not in fear or dread of death, in fact he is looking forward to it. He has not earned his redemption through his work, but he continues to work hard for God’s kingdom and for the good of others because he has the promise of heaven not in order to earn it. While not wishing for death it should not be a fearful thought. Through baptism we can be assured of our place in heaven but while we remain in this life we should continue to work with God for the good of others, completing what was started at our baptism.

Jesus is the first and last, the alpha and omega, through him all can be brought together in unity with God finding our everlasting home in God as equals. We do not earn our place in heaven by our work but through the generosity of God in the actions of Jesus. In the meantime, we are all co-workers in the world, the vineyard of a generous employer, bringing the gift of salvation to others who may be late coming to the vineyard but nevertheless can still receive the same payment of redemption.

God Bless Brendan